Dunleckney
today is the site of the 16th to 19th century Dunleckney Manor 2.5 km.
to the NE of Bagenalstown in co. Carlow. Dunleckney was a
small village from the 1100's until 1585 when the Bagenals first built
their home there. Successive additions greatly enlarged it to be
the present Dunleckney Manor in 1845. Near the manor is a mound
dating back to about 500BC and on which the Normans built a castle in
the 12th to 13th century. They also built a church and graveyard
behind the castle. Sometime in the 1500's two new churches were
built back to back beside the old cemetery which they continued to use.
By the 18th century one had become the Roman Catholic church and the
other became the Church of Ireland. This church served the C of I
parish of Dunleckney which included the towns of Dunleckney,
Bagenalstown (now Muine Bheag), Newtown, Ballywilliamroe, Lorum, Upton
and several other small townlands until about 1800 when an increased C
of I population in the area resulted in the opening of a church at Lorum
(Balinkillen) in the 1830's and St. Mary Dunleckney in Bagenalstown in
1844. For some maps of this area see:
Dunleckney
about 1830,
Modern
Archeological Map of Dunleckney and
Aerial view of
Dunleckney Today

One
of the last remaining signs of the village is the overgrown graveyard
and the ruins of the two churches. In the picture, the vine
covered ruins to the left were the Catholic Church and the ruin at the
back was the Church of Ireland. The graveyard served both
parishes. See also
Another photo and
Dunleckney Cemetery Inscriptions

My direct ancestor, Robert Bowles,
was baptized in the C of I church shown in that picture on Sept. 27,
1813. His father, John Bowles from Ballickmoyler, Queen's
county, lived in the Dunleckney parish from before 1808 until they
left to emigrate to Quebec City, Canada in 1818.
noteAlso See
The Bowles of Quebec

I don't know yet just where they lived in Dunleckney parish.
They may have lived right at the Dunleckney townland and worked for the
Bagenals, they may have lived in the larger Bagenalstown or at Newtown
where their landlords in Queens county, the Cooper family, had lived
prior to moving to Queen's co.

John Bowles was not the only Bowles from
Ballickmoyler, Queen's county to live at Dunleckney though. The
Castletown Church registry records a William Bowles, aged 51, who died
at Dunleckney and was then buried at Castletown on Dec. 16, 1816.
The Castletown Church was the parish church for the Bowles of
Ballickmoyler, Queen's co. See
The Bowles of Ballickmoyler and the Church at Castletown.
The Dunleckney parish
registry records that a Jane Bowles was baptized there on Jan. 23, 1817
the daughter of William Bowles and Susan his wife. This would
likely be William Bowles Jr., son of the William who had died two months
before. I have no further trace of this family after that. I
can speculate that this is the same William who then lived in Carlow and
who died at Carlow town in 1886 at age 86. If his age at death is
accurate though he would have only been 16 or 17 when his daughter was
born here. See
William Bowles of Carlow.

John Bowles' brother, Joseph Bowles of Carlow town,
married a Jane Feltus at St. Mary's Carlow on Feb. 27, 1808.
Feltus is a very rare name in Ireland but the Dunleckney parish register
is full of Feltus entries. I believe Joseph must have also
had a connection to Dunleckney which led to his marriage to Jane.
See The Feltus Family of
Carlow

The Bowles were at Ballickmoyler, county Queens from
the early 1700's and first appear in Dunleckney records in 1808.
However, it's possible that their connection to this area actually
precedes their time in Ballickmoyler. Dunleckney is only about 2.5
miles from Newtown, co. Carlow which was where the Cooper family lived
prior to acquiring the land at Ballickmoyler where the Bowles became
their tenants. It's likely that the Bowles were already connected
to the Coopers in this area of co. Carlow in the early 1700's prior to
accompanying them to Ballickmoyler. There may be more Bowles
records to discover in this area yet.